Small MPU – Page 606
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News
ITALY 7 June
Harry Potter And ThePrisoner Of Azkaban stormed into the Italian box office at number one,earning a massive $6,283,045 on its opening weekend for Warner Bros Italia. TheAlfonso Cuaron film, released during the normally quiet Italian summer seasonon a wide 637 prints, pulled the crowds in to gross a huge $9,863 ...
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Sony unveils 4k digital cinema projection system
Sony Electronics last week unveiled a new digital cinemaprojection system - offering four times the resolution of the current projectordeveloped by market leader Texas Instruments.The move by Sony comes at a time when the industry isincreasingly embracing the need for new technology, both in a bid to counterrampant piracy and ...
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Market for on-demand film surges worldwide
Morethan 100 million homes worldwide now buy on-demand films, according to a newreport.InformaMedia Group's On-Demand TV - ThirdEdition forecasts that this number will triple to 327 million homes by2010, or about a third of the world's total TV households.Thesehomes will generate revenues of $12bn. This compares with 91 million homes ...
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Shochiku names Sakomoto as new president
Junichi Sakomoto has been appointed president of Shochiku,one of Japan's Big Three film companies, with interests in production,distribution and exhibition.Formerly vice president, Sakomoto replaces Nobuyoshi Otani,who served as president since emerging victorious in a boardroom coup in 1998.The grandson of Shochiku mega-producer Shiro Kido, who ranthe studio during its postwar ...
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Berlinale calls on film-makers to shoot football films
The Berlinale Talent Campus has launched a shortfilm competition - Shoot Goals! Shoot Movies! - for film-makers toillustrate their passion for the game of football as well as the fans and theculture it generates in their respective countries.According to the guidelines of the competition,submissions in either dramatic, documentary or animated ...
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Aaltra takes Transylvania audience prize
Belgian road movie Aaltrawas the most popular film with audiences at the Transylvania Film Festival (May28-June 6), the growing Romanian event now in its third year.The festival's officialfirst prize went to Dias De Santiago, a Peruvian film directed by JosueMendez about a young soldier who has difficulty adjusting to real ...
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Portugal's SIC buys controlling stake in CNL
Portuguese private broadcaster SIC has bought a 60% stake in pay-TV news channel Canal de Noticias de Lisboa (CNL) from telco Portugal Telecom subsidiary PT Multimedia. The channel is carried by pay-TV operator TV Cabo.The deal marks SIC's first move into the production of thematic channels. Last year SIC launched ...
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Munich fest to open with Pearl Earring
Peter Webber's Oscar-nominated Girl With A Pearl Earringwill be the opening film at this year's Munich Film Festival which begins onJune 26.The eight-day festival, which is the first under the management ofAndreas Stroehl, will also include screenings in of such films as WalterSalles' The Motorcycle Diaries, Ivan Fila's King Of ...
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Raggy Boy wins top Emden festival prize
Aisling Walsh's Song For A Raggy Boy was presented with theEuros 10,000 Bernhard Wicki Prize at this year's Emden-Aurich-Norderney FilmFestival in the north-western corner of Germany.Second and third prizes in this competition for feature films fromthe German-speaking countries and North-Western Europe went to Ben Sombogaart'sTwin Sisters and Paul Morrison's Wondrous ...
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Canal Plus sells off Studio Expand companies
CanalPlus has sold off five companies that previously made up the lightentertainment division of its Studio Expand, TV production group.ProductionsDMD, KM and CALT are being sold back to their founders; Adventure LineProductions is being taken over by JAP, a company representing Teleimages and agroup of private investors. The fifth company ...
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Punisher takes $1.9m from openings in eight territories for CTFDI
The Punisher, the latest in a growing line of Marvel Comicsadaptations, grossed $1.9m on 600 screens in eight territories in its firstinternational outings at the weekend.Released through ColumbiaTriStar Film Distributors International (CTFDI), the vigilante saga took$913,000 on 350 in Spain and $601,000 on 145 in Australia.Latest cumulative totalsreleased by CTFDI ...
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Helen raises $1m in first international opening in Australia
The comedy Raising Helen enjoyed a decent first international foray at theweekend as it opened through Buena Vista International (BVI) in third place inAustralia on a very strong $1m on 205 screens.The distributor also opened HomeOn The Range in Colombia last week,where it scored the biggest ever bow for a ...
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Harry confirmed as third biggest international opener ever
Official figures released byWarner Bros put the international opening of Harry Potter And The PrisonerOf Azkaban at $113.5m from 7,885screens in 24 countries, which combines with the $93.7m domestic haul for a$207.2m worldwide opening.The international bow wasthe third biggest of all time behind The Lord Of The Rings: The Return ...
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THINKFilm buys wine documentary Mondovino
THINKFilm has acquired NorthAmerican rights to Jonathan Nossiter's Cannes competition entry Mondovino, a documentary about the conflict between artisansand commerce in the contemporary wine-making world.The company said it isreadying a re-edited version for presentation during the autumn festival seasonand theatrical release. The deal also includes DVD rights to the film ...
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SWEDEN 8 June
After RolandEmmerich blew all competition down the chart last weekend, hardly anythingchanged in the top 10 this week. Though all the films placed one to six on thechart dropped some 50%, they kept their places with The Day After Tomorrow achieving the best screen average of $5,126on its high 96 ...
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FINLAND 8 June
Despite his hometerritory advantage, local boy Renny Harlin's latest US action flick Mindhunters was no match for thedominance of The Day After Tomorrowand Troy, though they dropped 45% and38%.However, RolandEmmerich's ecological disaster extravaganza retained the chart's strongestscreen average with Euros 3,412 on its 52 prints compared to Harlin's Euros1,201 on ...
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DENMARK 8 June
Despite ravereviews Jim Carrey-starrer EternalSunshine Of The Spotless Mind's 10 prints couldn't overthrow the dominanceof The Day After Tomorrow and Troy, though both films had a lowerscreen average and fell back 43% and 35% respectively.Overall it was allbut impossible to spot why this weekend's gross was up some 58% from ...
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Israeli cable operators agree to share with Yes
Israel's cable operators have caved in to government pressure and agreed to share programming with start-up digital satellite franchise holder Yes.Yes previously told Israel's ministry of communications that it would return its franchise unless the country's cable operators were forced to share their programming with the new outfit. The cable ...
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Reviews
Five
Dir:Abbas Kiarostami. Fr-Iran, 2003. 74minsHavingtaken his own cinema lessons to heart (see Screen International's reviewof 10 On Ten), Abbas Kiarostamihere reaches the logical conclusion, going for the most esoteric, minimalistcinema imaginable, consisting of just five long static shots taken with adigital camera, no actors, no script, no story and no ...
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Reviews
The Hook (Je Suis Un Assassin)
Dir: ThomasVincent. France. 2004. 110minsThe moralconsequences of murder provide the basis for a solid psychological thriller in TheHook. Director-writer Thomas Vincent created a few waves with his grittycharacter piece Karnaval (1999) and this follow-up marks a move towardsmore mainstream fare.Adapted from aDonald Westlake novel, it is intriguingly set up and ...